There aren’t any excuses for what happened to the ISU women’s basketball team in Stillwater, Okla., on Sunday, ISU coach Bill Fennelly said in a news conference Monday.

No. 17 Oklahoma State defeated No. 24 Iowa State 71-42 for its largest losing margin this season. Fennelly still believes that his team (13-3, 4-2 Big 12) is a “solid team” that just “did not play well.”

“You’ve got to give Oklahoma State all the credit in the world,” Fennelly said. “We turned the ball over too much, and we had four starters go 8-of-37 [shooting]. I don’t care who you’re playing; that’s not a good thing.”

The lone bright spot for an ISU team that struggled offensively for most of the day was forward Hallie Christofferson. Christofferson finished with a double-double — 14 points and 10 rebounds — while shooting 6-of-10 from the floor.

Christofferson said that while her team got off to a fast start and was enthusiastic about leading the Cowgirls 10-4 early, everything went downhill from there.

“You have to forget it in order to move on, but there is so much we can learn and take away from that because obviously we didn’t play how we wanted,” Christofferson said.

Fennelly described Oklahoma State as a team that was even more impressive in person than on video and that throughout the game, its energy level was constantly high. Fennelly added the fact that the Cowgirls shot 50 percent from the floor and 44.4 percent from 3-point range as difficult for the defense to handle.

“In some games, you’ve got to stop the other guy and defend them. This was a game where we needed to make a couple baskets because they were making shots more than any team we played all year, and we couldn’t make a shot,” Fennelly said. “They’re a hard matchup for us because of the way they can spread the court. I don’t think they’re 30 points better than us, but they certainly were [Sunday].”

Iowa State will have just a few days to move on from the loss as it will now prepare to play No. 1 Baylor for the second time this season. Christofferson said the opportunity to play the No. 1 team in the country is something that definitely gets her adrenaline going.

“Being in the Big 12 and having the opportunity to play somebody that’s No. 1 is great,” Christofferson said. “We’re just going to have to bring our energy and our enthusiasm to have a chance to win.”

Tipoff between the No. 24 Cyclones and No. 1 Lady Bears will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Hilton Coliseum.